She hurt for him. It didn’t matter that her view was that she couldn’t handle the life of a military family. No, this was about Max. And the fact that Max was hurting. She was shocked at how much it hurt her for him. Was this how her dad had felt? Or would have felt if he’d gotten out? Maybe. That didn’t change how she’d felt as his child.
“I’m really sorry. So what will you do?”
He gave a gruff, dry laugh. “I’ll build this house. I’ve been working on my little project for a long time. I’ll have surgery on my knee. I think it’s going to happen next week.”
“I knew that your family didn’t know what you were going through. And I had dinner with your sisters and also Lana and Jessica night before last. It just weighed on me that no one knew what was happening with you and I came out to check on you. To see how you were doing. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t mind. I’m not in a very good mood. But then I’m also not going to let myself wallow in my disappointment. I’m alive. I can’t say that about everybody. Not everyone comes back from these missions.”
It was the closest he’d come to letting her in on anything about his missions. And it struck her then that in this mission where his knee had been hurt so badly, that had ended his career…others must not have come home.
And that hurt him.
“I’ve been thinking about that a lot. About you and your dad. I really do get the decision and your reasoning. But now, I can’t say much, but I went to some funerals when I got back from the last mission. And it was rough watching my buddies’ families…their children. And you went through that. You understand more than most.”
She wanted to wrap her arms around him and give him comfort that she knew he wasn’t asking for. Or was she sure he would welcome it. But she wanted to anyway. And then again, that was dangerous for her. “I came because I do understand, despite everything. I understand.”
They stared at each other for a long time. She took a deep breath. The urge to wrap her arms around him was almost overwhelming. So much so that she took a step back so that she wouldn’t follow through. “I guess I just want to say…I’m here. I’m here if you want to talk. I know there’s things you can’t talk about, but I’m here. And also, you’re going to tell your family now? Right?”
“Yeah, I’m going to tell them. I just needed time to process. I’ll tell them tomorrow probably.”
She nodded. She wasn’t the only one to give him consolation then. He would have others who understood. Others who could support him. And he would have his brothers. Other men who he could lean on.
“I guess I better go. I need to get back to the stable. I just couldn’t help but come by.” Unable to stop herself, she crossed to him and stopped a few feet from him. He looked startled as she took the final step and wrapped her arms around him. Her heart thundered in her chest. She could not help laying her head on his chest. She felt his heart beating rapidly against her ear as his arms came around her. He said nothing and she said nothing; then she let go of him and backed out of his arms. “I’ll see you later.”
She started to walk away.
“How did you get here?”
She turned. “I walked. I parked my truck at the entrance.”
“Oh, okay. And here I thought I was blocking out the world.”
She laughed. “It’s just in your mind. You have plenty of folks out there who wouldn’t let you block them out for too long.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Thanks for coming.”
She noticed he wasn’t moving. And she wondered how bad his knee was hurting. But right now she had a feeling that his knee wasn’t what was hurting him the worst. The fact that his career had ended before he was ready for it to end was probably a much higher intensity of pain than his leg.
“Take care of yourself.” She walked out the door and down the path, her thoughts heavy as she saw the blue water and then walked to her truck.
The thought hit her then. In his pain, in his loss, it had also opened the door and taken away all the barriers that she had put in place between them.
Chapter Seven
After Kelsey left, Max set his hammer down, and then hopped over to the open window and eased himself down onto the windowsill. He grunted with the pain. He had almost decided not to have the surgery but there was a lot messed up in there and the doctors had advised that he go through with it now and not wait. His knee was so shredded the doctors were worried that he would never have a hundred percent recovery. Even after surgery, he could have stability issues. These doctors wondered why the prior doctors who’d looked at his knee right after the mission had not done surgery immediately.
He hadn’t lost a limb or his life, so he should be grateful. And he was. He just had to get over his shock and accept that life as he’d known it was over and it was time to plan a new future.
He stood and reached for the cane that he had been using and then walked slowly out the side entrance of the house and sank to the seat of his all-terrain vehicle. The only way he’d managed to get up the hill was using his ATV. Now he felt guilty that he hadn’t offered to take Kelsey back to her truck but he hadn’t wanted her to feel any worse than she probably already did. She was already worried that she’d made his injury worse. If she had seen him hobbling around, she would be horrified. He would not put that on her.
He drove down the hill and Charlotte trotted beside the vehicle. He parked right outside his bungalow and he moved straight from the ATV to his truck. There was no sense wasting any more time. It was time to go see his family. Time to admit that he had a problem.
Time to let them know that he would not have their pity. It was already over and done and time to move on.
He stopped by the police station first, spotting Levi’s SUV and Jillian’s husband Ryan’s too. He’d been an undercover cop for years and had had to give it up, so in some respects he’d been through what Max was going through. Only, Ryan had been ready for a change.
Max knew Ryan was very happy and they were expecting a baby soon.
He needed to adjust like that; he knew he was going to have to try to adjust like Ryan. He got out of his seat and grabbed his cane. He needed to get a crutch and after he told his family, he would probably go pick one up. There was no need to try to hide it now and he didn’t know whether he could make it a week till surgery without one.
“Hey, brother.” Levi looked surprised when he saw the cane. “What is that?”
Ryan put down his pen. “Did you hurt yourself?”
“Well, not exactly. I’ve been hurt since I got back from my last mission. I was able to hide it until I jumped out of the truck to help Kelsey last week. I need to have surgery next week.”
“How bad is it? How long will recovery take?” Levi asked.
“It’s gonna take awhile, and at best, it will only be a seventy percent recovery due to the complexities of the injury. The doctors gave me the news yesterday.”
Ryan and Levi looked at each other and he saw their minds working. “Yeah, I got my walking papers yesterday.”
“That’s too bad.” Ryan shook his head.
Levi’s brows dipped. “You’re out? They’re letting you go?” His words were a mixture of disbelief and concern.
“Yeah. No choice. You know I need to be a hundred percent.”
“Understandable,” Ryan muttered, thinking. “Still, I know that’s rough for you.”
“Yeah. It’s rough.”
“If it’s any consolation,” Ryan offered, “for me, there was life after undercover. As for you, there will be life after Special Ops if you let there be.”
“So I hear.” His thoughts went to Kelsey. “I’ve been in denial since I got back but I’ve been pretty sure this was coming. Even before my stunt the other night when Kelsey’s boss showed up.”
“Here, have a seat.” Levi went around the desk and turned the chair so Max wouldn’t have to walk too far.
Max eased down into the chair, the brace helping to keep his knee straight. St
ill, he grimaced.
“Maybe you should have sat on the desk so it wouldn’t have been so low.” Levi looked concerned.
“It’s fine. And I’m fine…really. I’m coming to terms with it. Kelsey made a point the other night that if I wasn’t a hundred percent physically that I endangered my team. That really helped me see a new perspective.”
Both Ryan’s and Levi’s eyes filled with speculation as he realized what he’d said.
“So you and Kelsey are talking?” Levi asked.
“Yeah, we are,” he said with hesitancy, trying to decide how much to reveal. “I like her. She has a good head on her shoulders. Cam did good when he hired her. What a joke for a boss—ex-boss she had. What I’d like to do to him…” Hostility toward the man was something that was going to be hard to get over. He wanted to protect her. “Speaking of, she tells me that he hasn’t been back around. Do you think this is over? Or do you think he’s going to show back up?”
“Well, let’s just say I have a patrol car making a patrol out there a few times a day. I’ve told Cam about it. Ryan and I did some research on him. And he is not the kind of guy who gives up real easy on something he wants. And he is not all that well thought of in the circles he travels in. So I don’t know. He’s putting himself in jeopardy by getting his name drug through a lawsuit. But he’s hot enough that that might not matter. So if she’s not pressing charges, we’re in a wait-and-see holding pattern.”
“You stay out of trouble,” Ryan added.
“Well, at the moment, I’m fairly useless. I had a little movement left in me the other day but that’s pretty much gone by the wayside for now. So, I’m going to have to rely on you guys to make sure she’s safe.”
“We are doing all we can. I hate it that she didn’t press charges on him.”
“Yeah, me too, and I told her so. I can still protect her with my weapons if I needed to but…”
“I’d appreciate if you would try to refrain from being involved. I’ll try to keep her safe.”
“Try isn’t good enough.” Max held his brother’s gaze. “Keep her safe.”
“We are doing everything we can. She did not sign a restraining order, so I can’t arrest the man for walking up to her or to the stables. Or approaching her in town. She didn’t give me the grounds to do that. Still, I will make sure she’s safe. You care about this girl,” Levi said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this serious before.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I have to say there is something about her that had me at hello. That’s a movie cliché, I know, but it’s true.”
Ryan grinned. “That’s how it works sometimes.”
He nodded. “But her dad was a Marine. He died for our country and she’s not into military men.”
Levi’s expression turned speculative. “You’re not in the military anymore.”
“Yeah, so I’ve been told.”
Kelsey was upset more than she wanted to be when she left Max’s place. She wasn’t ready to go back to the stables but wasn’t sure where to go. Then she spotted the Windswept Bay Sea Turtle Hospital. Without another thought, she pulled into the parking lot and got out.
It was the perfect distraction.
She was just walking toward the entrance when she saw through the open gate a group of people exit the building and head toward one of the ambulances. Shar was one of them. Without stopping to think, Kelsey stepped through the open gate and walked toward them.
Shar spotted her. “Hey, Kelsey, you came by.”
“Yeah, I thought I’d check it out. Are you going somewhere?”
“We’ve got a turtle in trouble. You want to come?”
She needed a distraction and this was certainly that. “Sure. If I won’t be in the way.”
A good-looking guy with curly dark hair was opening the back of the ambulance. “Are you kidding? That’s Shar’s code way of saying come help us.”
Shar laughed. “Alex is right. We can always use help.”
Alex pulled out a bag and strapped it on his back. Shar pulled a tub from the back of the ambulance.
Excitement filled Kelsey. “Then I’d love to come along.”
The other man—John, Shar called him—closed the doors to the ambulance. “Follow them,” he said.
Kelsey realized that Shar and Alex were headed toward the back of the building. Toward the water.
To her surprise, within moments, she was in a power boat with the Sea Turtle Hospital emblem on the side. Alex stood at the wheel; John stood beside him. She and Shar sat on a bench at the back of the boat as they sped across the sparkling blue water. Sea spray rose and splashed her, feeling refreshing and shocking as the wind whipped around them. Anticipation filled her at the very thought of participating in a rescue.
“It’s a loggerhead sea turtle and it’s bleeding and floundering in the water about five miles out between the shore and the reef. Jake spotted it and called in the coordinates. He was taking a group out to dive at the reef. It very well could have been hit by a boat propeller or bitten by a shark.”
“Is it big?”
Shar shrugged. “Jake said it looked to be over two hundred pounds at least. Loggerheads grow to around four hundred pounds, so not as large as some species. Big enough that it may take all of us to get it in or the crane.”
They slowed when they reached an area and spotted a diver’s flag that Jake had set out. Sure enough, not far away was the bobbing injured turtle. It was still alive.
“Why didn’t Jake try to save it?”
“We prefer to be notified. Especially if they are big like this.”
Alex maneuvered the boat and John leaned out as they approached. “It’s three hundred for sure. It’s a big boy.”
Alex lined the boat’s backend toward the turtle and John and Shar stepped out onto the deck. John pulled off his shirt, exposing his muscled chest—the rescue worker obviously kept in shape.
He grinned as he tossed his shirt. “Someone always has to go in,” he teased.
“And he loves it,” Shar said. “He gets to flex his muscles and rescue a sea turtle. Only, no flexing at Kelsey, John. Max might hurt you.”
John looked surprised. “Really, you and Max?”
Kelsey looked from Shar’s mischievously twinkling eyes to John’s speculative gaze. “He’s a good friend.” She refused to elaborate.
Shar grinned. “Okay, let’s do this,” she said, suddenly all serious and putting the focus back on the rescue.
Alex brought the large tub with low sides and hooked it to the metal mechanized L-shaped wench on the back of the boat. He swung it out and lowered it to the water. John slipped into the water and Shar moved closer to the edge. She motioned to Kelsey to step out onto the deck.
Kelsey did as she was asked and they watched as John eased in behind the huge turtle and pushed it gently toward the bucket that Alex and Shar held steady from two different angles.
“You just be ready to grab where possible to help pull it into the bucket,” Shar told her.
As soon as the turtle met the open lip of the bucket, she saw Alex’s muscled arms tense as he held the back end steady and Shar helped pull the turtle inside. Kelsey reached out and grabbed the slick edge of the shell and pulled. All of them together were able to get the huge turtle into the container. Then Alex pushed the button and they helped guide the container into the low-sided boat and set it down in the floor. John was back on deck in a split second and they all were inside. Alex and John went to work on the wound.
“Shark bite,” Shar observed.
“It’s an old one. I’m thinking he’s been in trouble and floating in with the tide for a couple of days,” Alex said. “Let’s get him to the hospital.”
Kelsey sat back down, out of the way. It was clear they didn’t need her now. Within seconds, they were speeding back across the water.
Kelsey was fascinated by the entire process. After they reached the shore, they had the turtle unloaded and into the back of an ATV. Once at the h
ospital, they moved it to a stretcher and into surgery.
Shar hugged her. “You did great. Don’t you feel awesome knowing you helped rescue the turtle?”
Kelsey did. She’d been a part of saving an almost endangered sea turtle. “I do. I totally get why you love this.”
Shar looked satisfied. “I love it. I’m obsessed by it. Thankfully, Gage gets it and has been such a help to the project by helping me form our foundation. It enables me to help all the more with awareness.”
“Let me know how it goes. I’ll come back out to see him.”
“What are you going to name him? The rescuer gets to name it.”
“Oh, me?”
Shar nodded. “Yes, you.”
Thoughts rolled through Kelsey’s mind. She thought of Max and wished he’d been here to see it. She wondered whether he’d been involved in any rescues. Pushing thoughts of him away, she focused. “How about Wilbur? In Charlotte’s Web, Wilbur the pig survived because of the help of his friends.”
Shar chuckled. “Thinking of Max?”
Kelsey’s cheeks heated. “Maybe.”
“Hey, I love it. My brother needs someone. Speaking of Charlotte and Wilbur, I pointed out to him that he got the pig’s name wrong when he named the pig Charlotte and not Wilbur. He pointed out his pig is a female so he didn’t feel right naming her Wilbur.”
Kelsey smiled. “Charlotte fits his pig. She worries over him like Charlotte worried over Wilbur in the book, so it works.”
“Yes, that pig loves my brother and that’s part of the problem…Max needs a woman to love him.”
Kelsey had that on her mind as she drove away from the hospital. Max did need someone to love him…
Her heart squeezed tight at the thought. She was in new, uncharted territory.
Chapter Eight
After leaving Levi and Ryan’s office, he drove to find Trent. Trent had been in the military also and had not reenlisted. Trent did not talk about his military life. Trent built things. What was about them and doing things with their hands? Trent built homes and he enjoyed remodeling, taking something that was old and making it new. He also had started building extravagant tree houses lately. Max thought that Trent would be a great candidate for a DIY show like they had on television. Problem was Trent was not the most talkative; he was the quietest of all of them even quieter than Max. And some of that quietness had come after he’d gotten out of the military. Their sisters had renovated the resort and had asked Trent to be in charge of it. But Trent had turned them down, had told them that if they could get the work done at a reasonable price he would rather they did that. Trent didn’t like taking on huge jobs and the renovation of the resort had been a big job. It was still going on. Everyone had respected Trent’s decision to turn the job down…no one pushed.
With This Pledge (Windswept Bay Book 8) Page 6